Jazz legend makes a go of it outside Big Apple

Friday, Nov. 9, 2001 | 9:17 a.m.

Trumpeter Marvin Stamm, who lives in a small town 50 miles from New York City, says people who think the Big Apple is a major jazz center are wrong.

"It's a misconception," Stamm said during a telephone interview from his home in North Salem, N.Y. "There are a lot of clubs where a musician can make $75 or $100 a night, if you're lucky. But to make a living, there are only two or three places.

"But it's the same in San Francisco and Los Angeles and Chicago. There are only a few clubs in the United States who will bring a national or international group in and be able to draw a large enough crowd to be able to afford to pay them."

Jazz legend Stamm, who has performed with such artists as Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones and James Brown, will appear Tuesday at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas' Artemus Ham Hall.

Onstage with Stamm will be another jazz great, drummer Ed Soph. Accompanying them will be the UNLV Symphony Orchestra, conducted by George Stelluto. The program is a joint effort of the orchestra and the UNLV Jazz Ensemble.

Soph is an associate professor of music at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas, as well as a performer and recording artist.

Stamm toured with the Stan Kenton and Woodey Herman orchestras in the early 1960s before settling in New York City, where he performed with a number of groups, including the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, Duke Pearson's Big Band and the Benny Goodman Sextet.

He also was active in the recording studio, backing up such musicians as Quincy Jones, Wes Montgomery and Freddie Hubbard.

Stamm has appeared several times in Las Vegas over the years, performing at jazz concerts sponsored by the university, Four Queens and other venues.

He said it isn't easy to make a living as a jazz musician.

"I could not make a living in New York," he said, "but I can on the road, performing at colleges and universities and concert halls, venues where there are festivals. But for a jazz musician to stay in his own town, it's tough. Most of the jazz people I know are playing in Broadway shows, if they can get one."

He says it's a shame that jazz is not appreciated by a broader audience.

"Jazz people, for the most part, are not very good business people," Stamm said. "(Owners of jazz clubs) don't know how to market their club, or exite people to come."

Jazz, he said, is not a "viable way to make a living, except for us who have been around a long time and have a reputation."

But through it all, jazz survives, Stamm said.

"The interesting thing about it is, this music has such a life to it," Stamm said. "Despite all of the negative economic things, the music prevails.

"Musicians find a way to make a living. They find a way to make it work for them."

One of the biggest obstacles to jazz, he said, is that "in this country music and art of any substance is not presented well to the public. Classical music and jazz are for a minority audience because the public doesn't get that much of a chance to hear them."

He said people who seek out quality music are rewarded.

"The music is such a positive force," Stamm said. "People who really delve into it find so much joy in it. What we would all like is to find a way to bring this music to more people to raise the level of culture in this country."